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How do you properly wire a Bilge Pump for a Trailered Boat?

Started by SoCalAngler, February 17, 2020, 06:12:19 AM

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SoCalAngler

Part of my rewire project includes installing and wiring a new bilge pump.  I purchased the Rule Model 20SA 800GPH.  This model is one of their electronic sensing series bilge pumps.  It cycles on every 2.5 minutes for one second.  If it senses water it continues pumping; if not it continues the cycling pattern.  It also has a manual mode option.  Pump uses 0.2 amps per 24 hours.

My question is about how to properly wire.

My current options:

1.  Wire to switch panel on dashboard.  Switch is three way (ON-OFF-AUTO).  I can keep on auto when using boat and when left unattended at a marina.  This means that I have to leave my battery selector switch to either Batt 1, Batt 2, or Both.  I'm concerned about other potential drain on batteries with this scenario.  When battery selector switch is off, all power is OFF (including to this pump).  Since boat is rarely left unattended in a marina, I'm not too worried about this option.   

2.  Wire directly to battery #2 (battery #1 is starting battery) using a 3 way switch (ON-OFF-AUTO).  Mount switch at rear of boat near batteries.  Switch will be on AUTO when boat is in water.  My issue with this is I have to remember to turn this added switch to OFF when boat is not being used (on trailer at home).  I know I will forget to do this.  :doh:
 
3. ??? 

Thanks!
1988 Arima Sea Sprinter; '98 Honda BF50hp
1988 EZ Loader Galvanized Roller Trailer
Located in......?

Peddler

If you're going to stay with the periodic cycling pump, I vote for choice 1.

For my trailered boat, I opted for float switches instead of the periodic cycling type pumps. I also installed bilge water alarms.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wishin' I was Fishin'

First Cabin

I went with #2.

I put the switch in the motor well back by the kicker so it can be reached from outside the boat.  The drill is to turn it on and off when the plug is installed and removed.  When forgotten, I don't have to crawl into boat!
First:  1982 15' SeaHunter, Yamaha 70 2-stroke, Yamaha F6
Second:  1987 17' SeaRanger, Merc 90 2-stroke, Yamaha F8
Current:  2002 17' SeaChaser, Yamaha F100, Yamaha T8

DevMah

I have done installed both ways...
As you said it depends is your boat is in the water or trailered.

Option 2 gives you more flexibility.


Dev
2015 21' Sea Ranger w 150 Yammy  (Tight lines) Sold
2012 Lund 1650SS  w 2012 60HP Mercury-Sold

Salmon Hobo

I believed I have heard before that is is best practice to wire radio and bilge direct to battery for safely...in case switches or other fuses blow you still have bilge drain power and ability to call for help. Thoughts? Input?

DevMah

Quote from: Salmon Hobo on February 18, 2020, 03:29:51 PM
I believed I have heard before that is is best practice to wire radio and bilge direct to battery for safely...in case switches or other fuses blow you still have bilge drain power and ability to call for help. Thoughts? Input?

Main reason is if you have a major electrical or outboard fire you can turn off the main switch and still have the bilge and VHF operation.


Dev
2015 21' Sea Ranger w 150 Yammy  (Tight lines) Sold
2012 Lund 1650SS  w 2012 60HP Mercury-Sold

Koopa253

Quote from: Salmon Hobo on February 18, 2020, 03:29:51 PM
I believed I have heard before that is is best practice to wire radio and bilge direct to battery for safely...in case switches or other fuses blow you still have bilge drain power and ability to call for help. Thoughts? Input?

This is true for mainly larger vessels. I believe even ABYC of boats over certain size require vhf and bilge to be directly wired to power source. If you do this you will need a switch of course or the pump will just run. I opted for number #1 and installed a second bilge for redundancy. I have never had any issues. If you trailer your boat #1 makes more sense. I just don't feel the need to have items directly wired on my small vessel. I do carry a handheld vhf should my on board system to fail. One this to consider, is whether to connect your vhf to your nmea backbone. I opted not to connect and this gives me additional safety should the nmea backbone fail. Vhf is that only thing not connected to my net work. I use the standard horizon as many others and my internal gps within the vhf makes good enough connection with satellites to no require connection to my network backbone.
2006 Arima SeaHunter
2014 Suzuki 60 HP
2018 Suzuki 6 HP

Koopa253

Quote from: SoCalAngler on February 17, 2020, 06:12:19 AM
Part of my rewire project includes installing and wiring a new bilge pump.  I purchased the Rule Model 20SA 800GPH.  This model is one of their electronic sensing series bilge pumps.  It cycles on every 2.5 minutes for one second.  If it senses water it continues pumping; if not it continues the cycling pattern.  It also has a manual mode option.  Pump uses 0.2 amps per 24 hours.

My question is about how to properly wire.

My current options:

1.  Wire to switch panel on dashboard.  Switch is three way (ON-OFF-AUTO).  I can keep on auto when using boat and when left unattended at a marina.  This means that I have to leave my battery selector switch to either Batt 1, Batt 2, or Both.  I'm concerned about other potential drain on batteries with this scenario.  When battery selector switch is off, all power is OFF (including to this pump).  Since boat is rarely left unattended in a marina, I'm not too worried about this option.   

2.  Wire directly to battery #2 (battery #1 is starting battery) using a 3 way switch (ON-OFF-AUTO).  Mount switch at rear of boat near batteries.  Switch will be on AUTO when boat is in water.  My issue with this is I have to remember to turn this added switch to OFF when boat is not being used (on trailer at home).  I know I will forget to do this.  :doh:
 
3. ??? 

Thanks!

If your gonna be trailering the boat IMO I would lean heavily towards option #1, and run in manual mode. Unless you have a very wet boat, I can't imagine enough water entering the bilge that you would require automatic bilge function. I could be wrong but seems unnecessary unless you have water intrusion or are taking a lot spray/water over the open bow. I stay dry with no bilge intrusion.
2006 Arima SeaHunter
2014 Suzuki 60 HP
2018 Suzuki 6 HP

DevMah

Quote from: Koopa253 on February 18, 2020, 05:40:39 PM
Quote from: Salmon Hobo on February 18, 2020, 03:29:51 PM
I believed I have heard before that is is best practice to wire radio and bilge direct to battery for safely...in case switches or other fuses blow you still have bilge drain power and ability to call for help. Thoughts? Input?

This is true for mainly larger vessels. I believe even ABYC of boats over certain size require vhf and bilge to be directly wired to power source. If you do this you will need a switch of course or the pump will just run. I opted for number #1 and installed a second bilge for redundancy. I have never had any issues. If you trailer your boat #1 makes more sense. I just don't feel the need to have items directly wired on my small vessel. I do carry a handheld vhf should my on board system to fail. One this to consider, is whether to connect your vhf to your nmea backbone. I opted not to connect and this gives me additional safety should the nmea backbone fail. Vhf is that only thing not connected to my net work. I use the standard horizon as many others and my internal gps within the vhf makes good enough connection with satellites to no require connection to my network backbone.


Not ABYC standard that I am aware of to where the bilge-pump  has to be wired to just current protected and routing on connections to be above water. A automatic pump must have a manual override...

https://law.resource.org/pub/us/cfr/ibr/001/abyc.H-22.1986.pdf

Dev
2015 21' Sea Ranger w 150 Yammy  (Tight lines) Sold
2012 Lund 1650SS  w 2012 60HP Mercury-Sold

mustang65fbk

I took my boat over to Defiance to try and figure out why it was trying to sink on me.  In the process, the bilge pump stopped working.  Turns out it was just a wire that had been disconnected at the pump itself.  They wired it directly into the battery so that it's always running.  I was a bit hesitant about it but talked to the tech there over the phone after I'd picked it up and he said that they recommend the cycling style bilge pumps when on a mooring buoy because they don't freeze and get stuck like the float level style.  He said that along with the fact that the cycling style of bilge pumps use so little power that as long as you have a decent battery that you shouldn't have any issue.  Even if you don't use the boat for several months at a time.  I figured with them being the ones that built the boat that I could trust them with how they wire the bilge pump.  Haven't had any issue so far with it.
2003 21' Sea Ranger Skip Top
2003 Honda 130hp 4 Stroke

Koopa253

Quote from: DevMah on February 18, 2020, 04:04:33 PM
Quote from: Salmon Hobo on February 18, 2020, 03:29:51 PM
I believed I have heard before that is is best practice to wire radio and bilge direct to battery for safely...in case switches or other fuses blow you still have bilge drain power and ability to call for help. Thoughts? Input?

Main reason is if you have a major electrical or outboard fire you can turn off the main switch and still have the bilge and VHF operation.


Dev

Thanks for the correction. Mis-spoke when referring to ABYC. Meant to refer to larger commercial/coast guard inspected vessels where they have actual requirements for such items.
2006 Arima SeaHunter
2014 Suzuki 60 HP
2018 Suzuki 6 HP

DevMah

Quote from: Koopa253 on February 19, 2020, 02:28:03 PM
Quote from: DevMah on February 18, 2020, 04:04:33 PM
Quote from: Salmon Hobo on February 18, 2020, 03:29:51 PM
I believed I have heard before that is is best practice to wire radio and bilge direct to battery for safely...in case switches or other fuses blow you still have bilge drain power and ability to call for help. Thoughts? Input?

Main reason is if you have a major electrical or outboard fire you can turn off the main switch and still have the bilge and VHF operation.


Dev

Thanks for the correction. Mis-spoke when referring to ABYC. Meant to refer to larger commercial/coast guard inspected vessels where they have actual requirements for such items.

No worries ...

True for military and commercial vessels but small vessels don't fall under stringent specs.

More of a best practice on small vessels.


Dev
2015 21' Sea Ranger w 150 Yammy  (Tight lines) Sold
2012 Lund 1650SS  w 2012 60HP Mercury-Sold

Markshoreline

My experience with having a moored 21 is that even without bilge pumps no amount of water is going to sink it, even in heavy continuous rains.
Once on plane I turn on both manually switched pumps and they happily drain the boat, though it can take a while.
2002 Sea Ranger HT 21, Yamaha 150, Yamaha 9.9

mustang65fbk

#13
Quote from: Markshoreline on February 19, 2020, 08:10:25 PM
My experience with having a moored 21 is that even without bilge pumps no amount of water is going to sink it, even in heavy continuous rains.
Once on plane I turn on both manually switched pumps and they happily drain the boat, though it can take a while.

My boat tried to sink on me three different times.  Like you said, I don't think the boat would've ever completely "sunk" even completely submerged as the hull has the foam injected into it for that reason.  That being said, the batteries would've been toast as well as the bilge pumps not being able to be turned on.  The worst time I had about 7-8" of standing water in my boat when it was out on the buoy.  The neighbor up at our cabin called my parents and told them my boat looked like it was taking on water in the rear.  So then they called me and I drove up to Whidbey from town, a lovely phone call to get at 8:30am after you'd just gotten off working a 12 hour shift.  I get up there and lo and behold it's slowly sinking.  Luckily it hadn't taken on enough water yet to cover the tops of the batteries and she started up and drove her very slowly into the beach where it was a low tide.  I grabbed a bucket and started bailing out the water as well as turning on the bilge pump switch and was there for probably 20 minutes or so doing that.  I'm guessing it was well over 100 gallons of water that had gotten into the boat and luckily the neighbor noticed it when he did or else the batteries and motor, along with all of the other electrical could've been ruined.  Fortunately the boat has been repaired and I don't have that issue any longer but yes, for 20 gallons or so of water in your boat, or just a small puddle, you can pump it out while you're up cruising on a plane.  I didn't want to try doing that in my situation because there was probably at least a hundred gallons of water in the boat and was trying to keep it as level as possible so that it didn't destroy the batteries. Here's a picture that i took.
2003 21' Sea Ranger Skip Top
2003 Honda 130hp 4 Stroke

Koopa253

2006 Arima SeaHunter
2014 Suzuki 60 HP
2018 Suzuki 6 HP

Mooch

What amazes me about Stangs pic is not that his Arima is still floating but that the fiberglass floor boards are floating.  As heavy as those covers are I woulda thought they would've sunk like a rock. 

+1 for AGM's   :wink:
Matt. 8:27    The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

GregE

Quote from: Mooch on February 22, 2020, 08:11:29 PM
What amazes me about Stangs pic is not that his Arima is still floating but that the fiberglass floor boards are floating.  As heavy as those covers are I woulda thought they would've sunk like a rock. 

+1 for AGM's   :wink:

The fiberglass fish box covers are concave and would trap an air bubble.  Starboard apparently has enough bubbles to float. 
Sad picture in any case.
Greg
2005 SL 22 Honda 225 Kodak II
http://www.sagecreekforums.com/phpforum/index.php
Sold:Osprey 26 LC Kodak;  Arima SR 19 HT, Arima SE 16 WeeBait; SH 15 WeeBoat; SR 21 NoBait;  SL 22 ReBait